[quote author=Giorgino link=1125423840/30#43 date=1126093240]Match - I have Waters' "Amused to Death". I use it to test the Special FX capability of my speaks'.

Well, it's good but not great. I may have a lot setting up to do yet in terms of speaker placement. It's as good as the Horns but not better. On track 1 the "old boy's" voice talking about WWI and the dogs barking are a little distant. - not in a good way as it didn't help create the illusion of space.

The RL3 certainly did alot better with "Amused" than the omnidirectional speakers I auditioned. THe Duevels just lost the old boys voice placement. The RL3 haven't reached anywhere near the lowther based horn speaker I heard with regard to the Waters' album where the dogs were barking from the corner of the room behind my right ear and the old boy was talking 6' to my left.

Of course my opinions in this post are purely on the "Amused to Death" album's ability to create a special effect not as a general observation of the RL3s. [/quote]

AMUSED sounds like magic on my Silverlines. It is frightening how that CD comes across. I have been wanting a set of Radials for some time, but if they can't pull of the spacing that AMUSED is capabable of producing, I may have to re-think my future. I also have the horns in mind. The trouble with the horns, in my mind, is their inability to hit 35hz-40hz without the aid of a corner. If they could hit 35hz-40hz three feet in from the wall, my future would be set.

I will say that the Radials reproduce NATURAL spactial features accurately, more accurately than any other speakers I've heard. They reproduce the sound within my old garage apartment on my old bands' recordings extremely well.

The Waters and other Q sourced sounds are artificially created with different phase parameters etc. I think; these are probably created to work with conventional two speaker directional speakers and it would not be surprising to me that these aren't reproduced exactly the same way with the Radial design.

There area many areas of my system I will need getting used to. I think everyone has to take my initial impressions with a tablesspoon (as opposed to a pinch) of salt. The impressions I make are afterall - "initial". ???

However, on the face of it, the RL3s do an excellent job with other non-Q-sound CDs and have particular strengths in imaging and authority.

My experience with both omnidirectional technology speakers, is that they seem to cancel out, to a greater or lesser extent, the effects of the Q-Sound production effects. I'm not sure what the proportion of CD's out there are Q-Sounded but I suspect they are a small minority. I would not think it prudent to base my speaker purchase strategy on whether it works well of a specific effect especially when the particular speaker in mind has many other strengths.

Oh Ziggy, the courier guys managed to make a gouge into the box. The grain you see through the hole is infact the veneer finish of the speakers. The RL3s arrived fine but holes might expose them to further water or cosmetic damage which may be worth considering for the future. Just a headsup:

In my youth I worked for a large music store and occasionally a Yamaha or Kawai piano would come in with a damaged crate and no problems, because the packaging was almost nuke ready. They were sealed and triple sealed against the effects of crossing the ocean and as long as the inner wrappings were not damaged they were fine. However, sometimes even a small hole in the side, if the inner layer was breached, would show immediately the damage from humidity, like swelling of the wood in a worst case or discoloration next to the hole. If none is present, you should be fine. I'm anxious to see what the experts might say.

[quote author=Giorgino link=1125423840/45#48 date=1127295560]Just a pic of the set-up:(The Horns are there for size comparison) [/quote]

Please purchase a soft 6 x 8 foot rug or moving blanket or something similar and hang it 4 inches away from the front wall behind your speakers (and over that window). At least steal the bed spread off your bed and hang it over the window tonight and report back what changed. Make sure you post a picture of what you put up there for this "test".

Make sure whatever it is it goes from the curtain rod above the window all the way down to the floor. Then while you're at it, pop one of those wool skins on your walls on the floor in front of each speaker at the reflection point between the speaker and listener. Do this for one night and you'll thank me in the morning :P

Will do. Thanks for the tip. I had feared someone "in the know" was going to say something about the front wall window. That would so screw with my domestic feng shui!

On that wall, I have a pull-down projection screen that goes down to where the wooden carving is and when in use, the sound is great. I could pull that down when listening. Also, I have a 7' x 5' rug, the edge of which you see at the bottom of the pic.

Are those viable compromises? I'll post a pic of the set up with all that in place.

I moved out some furniture, pulled the projection screen down over the glass windows and movedthe rug to the middle of the room. There was a big time soundstage sensation. There are a number of other factors which I think contributed (eg, 2am listening at low level with lower overall acoustic noise floor and electrical noise floor) but the screen in front of the windows do work.

I guess the projection screen is not as effective as proper sound treatment of a think rug, but it will make a practical and convenient way to reduce the reflection issue. Many thanks Steve, for your keen observation. If there are other things I can work on, I'd welcome any input you may be able to provide.

Steve D. says: "Then while you're at it, pop one of those wool skins on your walls on the floor in front of each speaker at the reflection point between the speaker and listener."

Steve, or others,

With regard to the inital reflection point mentioned above; with the radials, how do you know where that point is? It seems it would be difficult to locate as the primary speaker points upward. Or, is it some degree point from the front facing driver based on some known driver dispersion pattern and height?